By IANS
Patna : In yet another case of street justice in Bihar, two suspected thieves were beaten to death by a mob Friday night.
This is the fourth incident of lynching in the state in the last 10 days.
The thieves, in their 20s, were beaten to death at Saketpuri, a lower middle class neighbourhood under the jurisdiction of Sultanganj police station, in Patna.
“The alleged thieves were lynched by an angry mob of 200 people and their faces disfigured,” police said.
“One of the alleged thieves jumped into a pond to escape from mob fury, but he was pulled out and beaten to death,” police said.
Last week, 10 alleged thieves belonging to the poverty-stricken ‘Kueris’ community, were lynched by a mob of villagers in Vaishali district.
A high-level probe conducted after the incident found out that the men were not thieves, as suspected earlier.
In another incident, a young man was beaten to death by a mob for allegedly stealing a statue from a temple. Rakesh Kumar, 26, was lynched last Tuesday by a mob in Patahi village in Sitamarhi district.
He was beaten to death with sticks and rods after a witchcraft practitioner identified him as the one who had stolen the statue.
The incident comes two days after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar imposed a fine against the residents of a village that lynched 10 alleged thieves and taking the law into their own hands.
Three days ago, a Dalit man was beaten to death and another seriously injured by landowners in a village in Banka district over a land-related dispute.
Bhagwat Ravidas, 60, a landless labourer, died after he was lynched by landowners and their henchmen.
Bhagwat’s relative, Hari Ravidas, was also seriously injured in the incident. He was admitted to a hospital in a critical condition Wednesday.
There have been several other cases of mob fury against suspected criminals in Bihar in last month.
Last week, a mob reportedly gouged out an eye of a person in Nawada district for allegedly snatching a motorcycle. In another incident, two minor boys were beaten and their heads tonsured partially when they were suspected of stealing detergent powder from a shop in Nawada.
On Aug 28, a youth was beaten up by a mob at Nathnagar in Bhagalpur district for allegedly snatching a gold chain from a woman. He was tied to the back of a motorcycle by policemen and dragged along the road.